Hello, I am Steve Suggs, sales recruiting expert and author of the book Can They Sell.
Welcome to my sales recruitment video blog.
5 minutes of learning to hire the best sales people.
In today’s video blog, you’ll learn how to improve your sales interview skills with
the personality type that I call Charming Charlie.
He’s that confident and charming personality who makes it hard to get to the truth.
The person who knows how to get what they want with their charm.
In this video, I’ll give you 3 sales interview tips so you can be the best at sales recruitment.
This is one of the most difficult situations when hiring sales people.
During my last interview with a charming Charlie, he had the product knowledge and industry
experience we were looking for.
He'd used his charm to network his way to the sales job interview.
In the beginning, it was obvious that he had confidence and resiliency to rejection that
gave him the appearance of a great salesperson.
He understood the sales process, could close sales, and had a track record of exceeding
quota, but by the end of the interview I decided he was not a fit for the team.
Eventually, his humor and charm turned to sarcasm and he began to exaggerate accomplishments
and deny weaknesses.
He didn't have the level of honesty and emotional stability to be a long term member of the
team.
So what did I do to keep control of the interview, to see past the charm and get to the truth
about this candidate?
When faced with the charming personality type, I want to know these things: Are they charming
and also productive?
Do they use their charm to serve customers or to serve their own selfish interests?
When their charm doesn’t work, do they resort to sarcasm?
Even though they sell above quota, are they just too hard to be around.
Here are the three sales interview tips you will need to make a great sales recruiting
decision with the charming Charlie type.
No. 1 –to avoid being intimidated by their high level of confidence and ability to dodge
your questions, you'll need the right mindset –I want people to impress me with facts
and accomplishments, not their sense of humor.
A sense of humor and charm is a bonus second to the character traits of honesty and concern
for others.
When you go into an interview, keep in mind it’s the candidate's job to impress you,
not your job to impress the candidate.
There comes a time when we need to recruit the candidate to the position, but keep this
mindset, it's the candidate’s job to show us they have what it takes.
The 2nd thing you'll need is a lot of self-control.
Remember this, your silence during the interview, will cause strong candidates to shine and
the weak candidates to crumble under the pressure.
Most sales managers used to be in sales, so it's hard for us to not have a great appreciation
for a charming salesperson.
It's hard, but when you stop laughing, strong candidates will get serious and give you good
information.
Weaker candidates turn off the humor and turn on the sarcasm.
Comedians and sarcastic people are energized when you laugh and match their sarcasm with
your own sarcastic comments.
Sarcasm and humor is Charming Charlie’s way of covering up his weaknesses, so maintain
your self control and ask the questions, show little to no emotions, write down their answers
and move to the next question.
You will eventually get to the truth.
The 3rd thing you'll need is the right interview questions for sales and these follow-up interview
questions.
When you get answers that sound good, but are vague, ask one of these follow-up questions:
I’m not sure what you mean, can you give me an example of that.
What was the result?
What would you do differently?
Please, tell me more.
Strong candidates give you some great details.
Weak candidates give you more vague answers.
Keep in mind that this confident and entertaining approach helps Charlie get his way in most
situations.
In order to get to the truth in the sales interview, you must have the right mindset,
a lot of self-control, and the right interview questions for sales.
Use these 3 tips during your next sales job recruitment with charming Charlie and you’ll
begin to recruit the best.
Thank you for joining me.
See you next time on the Can They Sell video blog for more sales job recruitment training.
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Now go enjoy recruiting the best, and have fun in the sales interview.